35W bridge over Mississippi collapsed

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John
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Post by John »

FavresLegacy wrote:are there any reports of how it broke yet?
They haven't even recovered a lot of the people from the river yet... I think they'll work on that first then look at the bridge. It'll take a long time to determine what went wrong with the bridge I'm sure.
Last edited by John on Thu Aug 02, 2007 10:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Samkon35
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Post by Samkon35 »

I wonder if there could be any survivers under the river. I mean maybe one of the cars was airtight and the doors got pinned under something. They completely need to be looking for survivers still I think.
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Post by glg »

FavresLegacy wrote:I wonder if there could be any survivers under the river. I mean maybe one of the cars was airtight and the doors got pinned under something. They completely need to be looking for survivers still I think.
Too small a space to hold sufficient oxygen, it'd run out shortly. Also, not that likely. Anyone in that situation would be best to kick out a window and swim for the surface. Hope was pretty much gone by midnight.
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DeeEss57
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Re: 35W bridge over Mississippi collapsed

Post by DeeEss57 »

Did anyone see the interview Brian Williams of NBC did with the Asst Deputy fire Chief on Thursday? Asked what were the positives he experienced during this catastrophe, he began to talk about 'Minnesota Nice' and how ordinary people jumped in to help rescue people at the risk of their own lives and how help came pouring in without officials asking for it. Then, as he tried to continue about these ordinary people helping, he became choked up and couldn't continue. Let me tell you, at that moment I was never so proud to be a Minnesotan.




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Greg
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Post by Greg »

me too :!:
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Re: 35W bridge over Mississippi collapsed

Post by Kansas Viking »

DeeEss57 wrote:Did anyone see the interview Brian Williams of NBC did with the Asst Deputy fire Chief on Thursday? Asked what were the positives he experienced during this catastrophe, he began to talk about 'Minnesota Nice' and how ordinary people jumped in to help rescue people at the risk of their own lives and how help came pouring in without officials asking for it. Then, as he tried to continue about these ordinary people helping, he became choked up and couldn't continue. Let me tell you, at that moment I was never so proud to be a Minnesotan.




Dawn
Yes, I watched that. Excellent interview and very moving.
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John
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Post by John »

Vikings pledge support to bridge relief

Vikings owner Zygi Wilf said his club would donate the proceeds of tonight's practice at Blakeslee Stadium in Mankato to the 35W bridge relief efforts.

"We feel the Vikings family should be committed to helping the families who were affected," Wilf said.

Added owner Mark Wilf, "You see the tragedy, and you feel for the families and want to help."

The Wilfs said they would explore other possibilities to help.

There was also a moment of silence, to honor the families affected around 7:40 p.m., when the entire teams were on the stadium field.

posted by Sean Jensen at 7:08 PM (Jensen's Blog in Pioneer Press)
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wow

Post by jackal »

I just got back home to day and watched a lot
of the coverage on CNN while on the cruise.

I hope that all of you guys and your families are safe.
no one expects the Spanish Inquisition!
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Post by HardcoreVikesFan »

15 minutes soon and my neighbor's son would have been on the bridge when it went down. Thankfully he left work early that day, because him and his wife were planning the wedding and moving in to a house or something like that.
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jackal
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bridge

Post by jackal »

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070807/ap_ ... e_collapse

Looks like they are thinking way down the road. Hopefully
Minnesota builds and maintains this one a little better. I am
just glad no more people were killed or injured in this accident
honestly.
no one expects the Spanish Inquisition!
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Post by mefford76 »

the national media headlines make it look like minnesota messed up really badly, but if you read between the lines it sounds to me like it was just a freak accident. what they keep using against them is that it was on some list of bridges that were unsafe (or some wording like that). They also say in some articles that a lot of bridges in the US have that rating. I really side with the state from what I have heard so far. I think something freakish happened. I don't think they were trying to do things on the cheap. It annoys me how the media turned on them just to make good headlines.
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Post by Minniman »

the national media headlines make it look like minnesota messed up really badly, but if you read between the lines it sounds to me like it was just a freak accident.
35W is a national interstate highway.

There have been many groups stating for years that the infrustructure of the national and state transportation systems have been degraded to a point of catastrophe.

Of course, only after a catastophe are most people willing to listen. This one was in Minnesota, but it could have been one of dozens of other bridges that are old and overused.

We had a wake up call, but we pressed the snooze bar, and people had to die for us to actually wake up.
We come from the land of the ice and snow .... :smilevike:
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Post by Cliff »

What's really scary about this issue is that Minnesota was supposed to be one of the leading states for bridge infrastructure rating.

Can anybody verify if that's true? I heard it on some news cast but can't find any online sources to back it up.
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Post by mefford76 »

but what i was saying was that it doesn't seem like minnesota was anymore negligent then any other state. in fact, from the articles i read it sounded like minnesota had a low percentage of bridges that were unsafe compared to other states. if newspapers were claiming that government in general was being way to lax about bridge safety i would agree, but they are disguising the issue by saying minnesota was to blame and implying the rest of you are safe. that doesn't sit right with me.
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Post by Cliff »

mefford76 wrote:but what i was saying was that it doesn't seem like minnesota was anymore negligent then any other state. in fact, from the articles i read it sounded like minnesota had a low percentage of bridges that were unsafe compared to other states. if newspapers were claiming that government in general was being way to lax about bridge safety i would agree, but they are disguising the issue by saying minnesota was to blame and implying the rest of you are safe. that doesn't sit right with me.
Everything I've heard has been the opposite.

I've been hearing that the government defunded projects to help keep bridges all over the country up to specification and that Minnesota was actually near the top (Or at the top) of the list of states that were doing a good job maintaining them. (A good job relative to the other states, that is).

The question has been "If this is the best state, what's that say for the other states?".

Again, I've only seen one news cast saying this (I don't watch a lot of news) and I haven't found anything online yet to back it up.
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